Five years after making his professional debut Joe Cordina finally gets the opportunity to announce himself at world level as a professional boxer, the Welsh decorated amateur champion has dealt with all domestic duties as a British and Commonwealth champion at lightweight, and now he finally makes his arrival to a world title fight at super-featherweight.
In his way is Japan’s Kenichi Ogawa, current holder of the IBF world super-featherweight title, a relentless fighter who can punch. Ogawa’s most notable fight was against Tevin Farmer in 2017, where he won the IBF world title via a controversial split decision, only later the decision was changed to a no-contest due to Ogawa testing positive for drug use.
On paper, the fight looks competitive and that is also how the bookmakers see it as well with Joe Cordina the slight favourite at 8/13 at time of writing, it may turn out to be a pick-em type fight of what work you like more – the front footed work ethic of Ogawa or the cleaner, more savvy work from Cordina.
One thing Cordina can take from Ogawa’s previous fights is his style makes him susceptible to taking some clean counters, with Cordina’s effectiveness at countering and the fact he has 8 stoppage victories in 14 fights himself, you do wonder if Cordina can hurt Ogawa early and keep him honest this could turn out to be an easier nights work than many expect providing if he can deal with Ogawa’s pressure cleverly.
However, I am expecting a competitive bout, Cordina is yet to have a break out type performance in his professional career and this is likely to be a difficult fight to do that in, but with home advantage, I am expecting him to do just enough to get over the line and become world champion, however, will not be surprised if the fight is close and scoring subjective.
PREDICTION: Cordina via Majority Decision
